$9.2M to Raytheon for Mk 48 Torpedo Maintenance

Raytheon’s Full Service Partnering Center in Poulsbo, WA received a $9.2 million firm-fixed price/ cost-plus-fixed-fee, time & materials contract. It covers technical engineering and maintenance services in support of the Undersea Weapons Program Office (PMS404) and MK 48 Heavyweight Torpedo Intermediate Maintenance Activities (IMA) for the US Navy. Raytheon originally won the contract in 2000, and performs intermediate-level maintenance, repair and refurbishment of MK 48 ADCAP torpedoes currently in the U.S. Navy’s fleet inventory of training and warshot torpedoes. The inventory is used for fleet training, readiness and submarine-launched torpedo warshot exercises. Work will be performed in Pearl Harbor, HI (80%, torpedo maintenance actions and technical support services); Yorktown, VA (18%, progressive depot level repair support); and Poulsbo, WA (2%), and is expected to be complete by November 2006. This contract was not competitively procured by the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC (N00024-06-C-6107). See also Raytheon’s press release.

The Mk 48 heavyweight torpedo is designed to kill both fast, deep-diving nuclear submarines and high performance surface ships. It is carried by all Navy submarines, as is a devastating weapon. The Mk 48 ADCAP has improved target acquisition range, reduced vulnerability to enemy countermeasures, reduced shipboard constraints such as warm-up and reactivation time, and enhanced effectiveness against surface ships. These torpedoes can operate with or without wire guidance, and can use active and/or passive homing, conducting multiple re-attacks if they miss the target. See also Undersea Warfare Magazine’s Winter/Spring 2002 article, “Torpedoes and the Next Generation of Undersea Weapons.”